For the first time, the 2025 European Poker Tour’s Main Event came together under one roof. Day Two of the €5000 Main Event completed action last night at the Casino Barcelona, and they would stop just short of popping the money bubble. That was OK for chip leader Jacob Amsellem, who went to sleep knowing he was going to be guaranteed a payday amongst the 313 players who survived the day’s battles at the 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event.
2025 EPT Barcelona Cracks 2000 Entries
645 players returned to the floor of Casino Barcelona for Day Two play, but they still had no idea what they were playing for. With late registration lasting right up to the point of cards in the air on Tuesday, one thing was known: the 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event would be one for the record books.
Once the first card was pitched on Tuesday, the EPT officials crunched the numbers and compiled the pertinent details. 117 more people ponied up the €5,000 buy-in, pushing the total entries for the 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event to 2,045 entries. This means that the tournament is the third-largest in EPT history, behind only the 2022 EPT Barcelona (2,294 entries) and the 2019 EPT Barcelona (1,988 entries).
With 2,045 entries in the books, it was interesting to see how it broke down. There were 1,490 unique players who stepped up to put their money on the line, and another 555 decided to dip back into their wallets after being eliminated for another shot. It wasn’t Spain who led the way for their homeland event, but France (with 191 players) who took top honors on the European continent.
The bottom line, however, was the money. The 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event will pay out 303 players, with a min-cash earning the player €8,550. The top eleven places are guaranteed a six-figure payday for their efforts, with those who come up short of the final table taking €102,150 as a consolation prize. The eventual champion of the tournament will be getting the lion’s share of the €9.9 million-plus prize pool, earning a €1,436,000 payday and the EPT Barcelona trophy.
New Names Surge to the Top
At the start of Day Two, Japan’s Daiki Shingae was the only player over the 400K mark in chips, holding 440,000. Things would not work out well for Shingae, however, as chips slipped through his fingers throughout much of the Day Two action. Shingae is still alive in the tournament, holding on to 168,000 of his original stack to come back for Day Three battles.
Shingae was not the only one who slipped down the standings on Tuesday. Nobody from the Top Ten on Monday would make it back to that position after the Tuesday play, ensuring an entirely new array of names would move to the top of the ladder. At the end of action on Tuesday night, it was France’s Jacob Amsellem who stepped up to assume leadership of the 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event – at least at the close of Day Two:
1. Jacob Amsellem (France), 802,000
2. Lauri Saaskilahti (Finland), 640,000
3. Michal Kil (Poland), 594,000
4. Oskar Jonsson (Iceland), 582,000
5. Antonio Santichio (Brazil), 565,000
6. Dario Pieruzzini (Italy), 560,000
7. Cesar Garcia (Spain), 529,000
8. Jason Wheeler (USA), 525,000
9. Silius Moll (Norway), 519,000
10. Damien Gayer (France), 511,000
Day 1B chip leader Anton Kraous finished Day Two just off the Top Ten with his 500K stack, and several other notables are in the mix. Adam Hendrix (436K), former EPT champion Dominik Panka (400K), and PokerStars Players Championship victor Ramon Colillas (290K) will be pretty assured of getting a cash prize from the 2025 EPT Barcelona.
That will be the first goal of the 313 players who return to the Casino Barcelona on Wednesday. Ten people will not be happy about having to return to the beautiful Spanish coast, because they will receive nothing for their efforts. Within a couple of hours of action on Wednesday, the money bubble will pop on the 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event, and the money will start to flow out to the players.
